day 3K160: Decision Fatigue

“Trust in the Lord with all your heart; do not depend on your own understanding. Seek his will in all you do, and he will show you which path to take.”

Give someone too many choices and they won’t make a decision.  It’s why we don’t want 20 different ketchup brands on the shelf.  Five or so are enough and we can make a choice.  Ever notice how hard it is to buy toothpaste?  For me, it’s because there are way too many choices and when I get decision fatigue, I just opt back to what I had before because I get tired of trying to make that decision.  And, this is also a physical issue in that our brains tire after having to make too many decisions.  It’s something for us to consider daily as we think about how we schedule our day.  Hard decisions should be put in front of us early, not late, as our fatigue could lead is to decide lazily, or not at all.  And if we are going to be the recipient of a decision, make sure we schedule ourselves early, not late.  Like for a job interview.  Do what you can to be interviewed early in the day, not later when too many others have gone before you.  Same with a sales presentation or anything where decision fatigue might play a detrimental role.

We are lucky we have a God who does not tire or bore with our needs and petitions that we take to Him.  He is the God of come to Him early and often.  We shouldn’t trust ourselves to make the right decisions on our own as our own fatigue and weaknesses lead us to make poor independent decisions.  The better decisions are taken to Him first.

Reference: Proverbs 3:5-6 (New Living Translation)